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Waltzing with Billy Zane

Waltzing with Billy Zane

 

 

Introduction to Billy Zane.   1:35 min.  Interview:  Raymond Elman.  Post-Production:  Lee Skye.  Music: Carmen Cicero. Recorded  4/4/2025, Miami.

 

BILLY ZANE (b.1966) is an actor, filmmaker, and visual artist. His breakthrough role was in the Australian film “Dead Calm” (1989), a performance that earned him a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actor. He has since appeared in numerous films and television series and starred as the main antagonist Caledon Hockley in the epic film “Titanic” (1997), for which he and the rest of the ensemble cast was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Zane’s other film roles include Kit Walker / The Phantom in the superhero film “The Phantom” (1996), “Match” in the “Back to the Future” franchise, Lieutenant Val Kozlowski in “Memphis Belle” (1990), The Collector in “Demon Knight” (1995), Curtis Zampf in “The Believer” (2001), and Richard Miller in the “Sniper” film series. He also played the recurring role of John Justice Wheeler in the second season of the television series “Twin Peaks.”

Over his busy career, Zane has appeared in 50+ films plus many plays.

His two most recent films are “Waltzing with Brando,” in which he portrays Marlon Brando building a house in Tahiti, and “Int. Hallway / Night.”

Zane is also an abstract expressionist painter. He has had many solo and group exhibitions.

And, in an affiliation with California Institute of the Arts and Florida International University, he serves as an advisor to D.R.E.A.M.S., a program exploring Location Based Entertainment (LBE) and the future of entertainment.

— Wikipedia

 

The videos below are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 6 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES:   3:26 min.

Where did you grow up and what was your first awareness of art of any discipline?

 

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES:    1:54 min.

Were your parents supportive of you getting involved with the arts?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:    2:01 min.

How did the architecture of Chicago impact you?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:    0:38 sec.

Who are some of the actors who influenced you?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:    4:07 min.

Your performance in “Waltzing with Brando” is magnificent. Tell us about the evolution of your involvement with this film and this character.

 

EMPATHY:    0:56 sec.

Are many of Marlon Brando’s children still alive, and did they get involved with helping to shape the movie?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    1:37 min.

When you were making “Titanic,” did you realize that it had the potential to be one of the most successful films of all time?”

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:   4:07 min.

Lee Falk, the creator of the “The Phantom,” became my friend in 1972. What was it like to play “The Man Who Cannot Die” in the movie version?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:   3:20 min.

Tells us about the evolution of your experimentation with making visual art, like the paintings behind you in this gallery.

 

SERENDIPITY:    2:51 min.

Tell us about your new film, “Int. Hallway / Night.”

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    5:30 min.

Tell us about D.R.E.A.M.S.

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:    2:55 min.

Have you experimented with Artificial Intelligence?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    1:25 min.

I am disappointed that young people generally don’t want to watch black & white films or any films made before 1990.

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    2:14 min.

What’s your favorite movie?